Back in January this year, Taliban commander Ehsanullah Ehsan, one of the world’s most wanted global terrorists who is connected to the assassination bid on Malala Yousufzai’s life, was found with his LinkedIn account listing “jihad and journalism” as his skills. Ehsan openly advocated himself on LinkedIn as a spokesperson for the Jammat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter branch of Taliban.
Ehsan even described himself as “self-employed” and provided information regarding his education, working history and language skills along with his photograph. The Telegraph brought this incident to light that led to the deletion of the account by LinkedIn soon after.
A LinkedIn spokesperson said “(I) Can’t say for certain that it is someone else…But I can say that our security team has a high degree of confidence that it is a fake account, which is reason enough to restrict it. (I) Also can’t say for certain who might have set it up if it is fake.”
This is a grim reminder that depicts social media not just as a platform for marketing and communication but also as a platform for such anti-social elements to promote their aggressive stances towards the rest of the world.
